


Gargoyle

by Ocean_Born_Mary



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied or Off-stage Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-15
Updated: 2005-08-15
Packaged: 2017-11-23 06:39:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocean_Born_Mary/pseuds/Ocean_Born_Mary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gargoyles were not only used as waterspouts but were supposed to be protection from evil spirits. Alone at night in the Titans Tower, who will protect the dreams of the innocent? Oneshot fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gargoyle

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: NOT MINE! Don't own them, sorry. I just like mucking around in other people's worlds.

Normally Raven Roth would have gathered her power to her and unleashed it the moment that she woke to the sound of harsh heavy breathing on the other side of her bed. Normally the offender would have been blasted to Azarath, her home planet, or quite possibly further, if she had been startled or enraged enough at the untimely intrusion. Normally was not tonight, because tonight the room was filled with only the natural shadows cast in a dark room and the harsh breathing beside her, her own darkness had been carefully contained and hidden within herself.

She stared silently at the old tomes which lined the bookshelf on this side of her bed for only a few seconds more before giving into temptation and rolling to her other side to face the intruder. His eyes were open, two bright spots in the dark, and Raven realized that her queen-sized bed was shaking slightly, and watching the boy's expression, she had no doubt that it was him, not her unstable powers, causing the bed to vibrate. She reached over his head, watching his eyes follow her arm to the nightstand and his shaking visibly lessen as he watched her fumble for a candle and matches. Pulling them to her it took three tries before her sleep stiffened fingers managed to strike the match and the slight smell of jasmine filtered through the room. She reached over his head again to replace the candle and matches, and watched the green shadows flitting over his face.

He was staring around her room, anywhere but her, as if he was afraid to meet her eyes. His were drawn to the far corner as the candle flickered suddenly, lighting up a crouched, fanged, and faded stone gargoyle on a pedestal, causing a small squeak to emerge from the boy as he recoiled from it. "Why do you keep that thing, Rae?"

The nickname that annoyed her by day was endearing when it came from him at night, and instead of snapping at him as she normally would, she raised one pale hand to push back her hair and wipe sleep from her dark eyes. "Gargoyle's are protection from evil spirits, BB."

If Beast Boy noticed the use of his nickname from the normally acid lips, he didn't say. He ignored the niggling question of what evil spirits, but asked instead, "But…how could something…so…cold…and distant, and…scary, protect you? He turned to meet her eyes, pulling the covers up to his chin, as if he was afraid to turn his back on the creature in the corner.

"Because he scares away the things that are worse than he his. If everyone is afraid of him, the people near him will be safe, because no one wants to do evil under the gargoyle's eyes, the gargoyle might do something worse in return…And its a symbol…It reminds you of who you are…you don't have to hide who you are from the gargoyle, they can see right through you. Enough talking about gargoyles. What was your dream about tonight?"

Beast Boy's eyes dropped from Raven's searching ones. The ones that worried about him tonight, but that tomorrow would scorn him and his jokes. She sat up beside him, and her hand found his. Hands that would comfort him tonight, but that tomorrow would ball into fists if he offered help. "The usual one…" he whispered. He couldn't help whispering in Raven's room. Raven's room was sacred ground. And even if he wasn't welcome into her sanctuary by day, he came freely at night, and for that, he followed the rules of the night. Quiet. That was rule one.

Raven watched emotions flit across Beast Boy's open face. He had been frightened, she could see, but as usual, the dream was fading and sleep was trying to replace it. Beast Boy had told Raven of the dream only once, and that once she remembered well. He had only been on the team for a week when she had heard the shuffling at the end of her bed and had almost blasted the new teammate into the next calendar year.

_'Why are you here?' she watched as the green boy cowered and then rallied._

_'I thought you'd understand…out of all of them, you'd understand.'_

_Curiosity got the better of her. 'Understand what?'_

_'My nightmare…my life.'_

_She had allowed her power to drain from her then, offering him a seat on her bed, and he had told her of his dream, and of his life. His parents had discovered his…special abilities, and put him in a circus where he'd been forced to perform since he was three. They got a nice paycheck once a month and never visited him, leaving him to his barred cage where he had been treated as an animal…maybe that was part of his violent reaction to the protection of animals…he didn't just shapeshift into one…he knew how it felt to be one. His small size was easily explained by the abuse dealt to him by the obese circus master, he may never be tall, and by the time he had been found he had been more animal than human. Robin had found him at the rehabilitation center a year later, by then he had stopped running from every human he saw and instead tried to master his fears by getting attention, had tried to pretend it didn't happen by making everything in life funny, by always being happy. But at night it would catch up with him, the demons he tried to keep locked up would find ways into his dreams, years of pain and neglect flashing before him._

_When he had finished talking he looked up from the dark quilt that he had been plucking half-heartedly at. 'Can I stay with you tonight? I don't want to be alone.'_

_Raven looked at him, the scared little boy in front of her, and suppressed the sudden and very foreign urge to smooth his hair. 'Fine. Tonight only though.'_

She'd repeat that phrase the next night and the next, until eventually his visits slowed, his demons being put to rest with time. He hadn't come in two months now, it was the first in a long while that he had made the trek from his room to hers, seeking relief from the nightmare that he had thought disappeared. "It was bad tonight, Rae…He was…he…" Raven saw a single tear slide down his face. She had once heard that there was no such thing as a single tear, that it was just some poetic nonsense made up for books. She would have said it was a lie when she saw Beast Boy if the partner to his tear hadn't been her own. Beast Boy wasn't looking and she hastily wiped away her moment of weakness, and then, she reached out and wiped away his. Ignoring the toppling tower that a minute earlier had been her bookshelf, she tried her best to calm herself and her friend as well. "It's just…I can feel him…and when I wake up…he's still there…still…"he shuddered.

"That he knows your every move, BB? That he's waiting to strike until you are absolutely and utterly alone? That even though, you know, rationally, that he's gone, he can't get you…"

"That he's around every corner, and behind every bush…Yeah, that's it Rae…That's it…Thanks. And, Rae, can I stay here tonight, with you? I don't want to be alone."

"Tonight only," said Raven, settling back down, pulling the covers closer around her. "You want me to leave the candle burning?"

"Yes, please…you know Rae…you always say that."

Raven rolled over once again to look at Beast Boy, who was watching the shadows that the candle was throwing across the ceiling. "Say what?"

"Tonight only…but, you've never kicked me out, Rae."

Raven paused. "I'll never kick you out, BB, not if you need me."

Beast Boy would be gone by morning, he always was, none of the other Titans knew, he had never been caught leaving Raven's room. He would become his normal obnoxious self, pretending he couldn't get hurt, that no one could rain on his parade, and nothing had existed before the Teen Titans, nothing but bliss. And Raven would be her cold self, pushing everyone away, shrugging off his jokes…pretending she didn't hurt inside…But Beast Boy lived for the small smile, that all knowing smile, given in secret when the others weren't around. That smile let him know she didn't forget, that she was there when he needed her, that with her, he didn't pretend. She was there every night, shielding his dreams.

Raven lay still, watching Beast Boy close his eyes, giving into the urge to sleep. He sighed and moved closer to her, seeking warmth and comfort from a cold dark night…a never-ending cold dark night, that for a short time, he could have a reprieve. But Raven knew that tomorrow he'd be gone…and he'd laugh and smile, and she'd depend on it to get her through the day, so that she could make it to the night…to safety and solitude, where shed didn't have to pretend that the world didn't hurt where it rested on her shoulders, where she didn't have to worry about hiding her emotions, where she was safe in the dark. It was Beast Boy who got her through the day, distracting her from it, so that she could be there in the night. She heard Beast Boy sigh in contentment, his breathing even. Raven was so sure that he was asleep that his voice startled her when he spoke. "Rae, thanks for being my gargoyle."

His gargoyle…his protector from the evil spirits, where he could be himself, able to keep everything at bay while under her dark wing…and Beast Boy…he kept away her pain, made her forget her inner turmoil as she focused on his. Leaning over to his ear she whispered, "No, BB, thanks for being my gargoyle."

_As both dropped into slumber they knew refuge was only temporary, but for now, they were safe in the arms of a gargoyle._


End file.
